"The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer"

[X_LIN]

Hello all,

I have a 4TB drive that I have been using for about one year and half. It worked fine until this morning, when I unplugged it after selecting Force Eject and plugged it in again, it shows "The dish you inserted was not readable by this computer". Both my macbook and iMac indicated same message, and my other hard drive was read just fine. So I think this is a hard drive issue.

Now my Disk Utility indicates that this disk is now "uninitialized", and there is no partition map. What I tried:
1. First Aid repair on Disk Utility - said the operation was successful within 1 second of the repair, but it still shows as uninitialized.
2. Recover with Disk Drill - Disk Drill Recover could not get any files from the drive.

If you can help me fix with Terminal or RStudio that would be even better.

I need the files so I am not going to initialize without backing up the files.

Thanks a lot.

 

[jeyf]

try it on a few different machines

 

[MSastre]

Why did you use Force Eject, and did you wait for the disk to finish spinning down before you unplugged it?

 

[jeyf]

the initial computer that you found the error do a complete power cycle
before you panic

best of luck

 

[X_LIN]

try it on a few different machines

Hi, I already tried on my macbook and imac.
[automerge]1585423255[/automerge]

Why did you use Force Eject, and did you wait for the disk to finish spinning down before you unplugged it?

Hi, I did let it finish spinning before unplugging it.

 

[Fishrrman]

Try this:
1. Power off the Mac
2. Disconnect the problem drive
3. Power ON the Mac, get to the finder
4. Now, RE-connect the problem drive, and.... just wait a while.
5. Give it about 20 minutes, "just sitting there".

WHY I'm suggesting you do this:
The finder -- if it encounters a drive with driver/mounting problems -- may be able to "overcome" the driver problems and then mount the drive.
The only way to know is to give this a try.

If that doesn't work...

I had success on a damaged partition on a drive.
Wouldn't mount, and couldn't be "seen" by disk recovery software.

My solution was not for the feint-of-heart:
I used Disk Utility to ERASE the drive (to HFS+), BUT...
I did NOT use the "secure erase" function (which would erase each sector on the drive).
I used only the "quick erase" (which erases the directory and updates the drivers, but leaves the actual data "out on the platters" alone).

Then...
The drive could be mounted in the finder, but it looked "empty" -- nothing on it.
HOWEVER...
I could now use data recovery software to access it, and the data recovery software FOUND the data "out there" on the platters, and was able to recover it to a "scratch drive".

Be aware:
With data recovery software, you may lose file names and folder hierarchies.
This is "par for the course" with data recovery, but the consolation is that you GET THE DATA ITSELF BACK.

There are data recovery outfits out there that probably COULD get the data back, but be prepared to PAY for it -- we could be talking thousands of dollars.

 

[doctor-don]

Hi, I already tried on my macbook and imac.
[automerge]1585423255[/automerge]

Hi, I did let it finish spinning before unplugging it.

So WHY Force Eject? Was it because you got the message that it could not be ejected because some application was using the data on the drive?

 

[Longkeg]

The “Force Eject” command should only be used in a situation such as what doctor-don describes. It is not the recommended way to eject a volume on a Mac. It can result in corrupted data which will put you in the exact situation you find yourself. So, inquiring minds want to know... Why did you use Force Eject? Was the disk misbehaving prior to this failure?

 

[X_LIN]

Try this:
1. Power off the Mac
2. Disconnect the problem drive
3. Power ON the Mac, get to the finder
4. Now, RE-connect the problem drive, and.... just wait a while.
5. Give it about 20 minutes, "just sitting there".

WHY I'm suggesting you do this:
The finder -- if it encounters a drive with driver/mounting problems -- may be able to "overcome" the driver problems and then mount the drive.
The only way to know is to give this a try.

If that doesn't work...

I had success on a damaged partition on a drive.
Wouldn't mount, and couldn't be "seen" by disk recovery software.

My solution was not for the feint-of-heart:
I used Disk Utility to ERASE the drive (to HFS+), BUT...
I did NOT use the "secure erase" function (which would erase each sector on the drive).
I used only the "quick erase" (which erases the directory and updates the drivers, but leaves the actual data "out on the platters" alone).

Then...
The drive could be mounted in the finder, but it looked "empty" -- nothing on it.
HOWEVER...
I could now use data recovery software to access it, and the data recovery software FOUND the data "out there" on the platters, and was able to recover it to a "scratch drive".

Be aware:
With data recovery software, you may lose file names and folder hierarchies.
This is "par for the course" with data recovery, but the consolation is that you GET THE DATA ITSELF BACK.

There are data recovery outfits out there that probably COULD get the data back, but be prepared to PAY for it -- we could be talking thousands of dollars.

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion. I turned macbook off, unplugged my drive, and turned macbook back on.Then I plugged in and waited for 30mins, but now the drive is not shown up. Here is what I tried when I could still see the drive on Disk Utility:

1. I tried to erase data, but it shows that "Unable to write to the last block of the device" and could not erase the disk.

2. This is a WD drive, so I went to www.wd.com and download "WD Drive Utilities" software. The software gives me an option to erase the drive. I selected Drive Erase option and it is shown to be erasing files.

But the entire time (when performing Drive Erase, as well as earlier actions with Disk Utility), I did not hear any sound from the hard drive. Is that considered normal for a functioning hard drive? I have seen some said that if it is not spinning, it might have underwent a voltage spike and need to change PCB (Link to the suggested issue: https://www.cleverfiles.com/help/external-hard-drive-recovery.html).

I fully understand that recovery will cost, but if that is the only way to get back the data, I am okay with that.

Thanks.

 

[X_LIN]

The “Force Eject” command should only be used in a situation such as what doctor-don describes. It is not the recommended way to eject a volume on a Mac. It can result in corrupted data which will put you in the exact situation you find yourself. So, inquiring minds want to know... Why did you use Force Eject? Was the disk misbehaving prior to this failure?

Hi, I used Force Eject because it was stuck for 30 mins when I am running a command and the Drive could not process because the files are too large. It was not misbehaving like this before this failure, but I did use Force Eject once in a while if it is stuck (and unplug it without proper eject sometimes..). I will make a note to make sure I don't use Force Eject often. Any suggestions?

 

[Longkeg]

Any suggestions?

Always backup everything.